The latest update from Siren Founder Darron Anley.
As we have somehow found ourselves nearing the end of summer, I thought it was time to give you all a further update on Siren.
Firstly, it has taken us a little longer to get to final accounts for 2020 than we would like, but we are now done, and I can share the highlights with you below.
As you may have expected, direct to consumer sales via our web shop made a big difference, as shown here:
As I mentioned in our February update, our EBITDA figure of £310,624 is very strong considering the considerable write-offs we had for stock and bad debts during this time. However, it is worth noting that this was also heavily supported by much lower costs thanks to Government support.
On to 2021, and our YTD position is good. We have had strong growth on our web sales, although decline has been very marked in the last two/three months in this channel. On-trade started strongly in April and May but has been challenging since. We have also started our foray into 4 packs with some considerable success.
We are around 19% up on this time last year and pushing for a strong end to the year. We have set ourselves a target of £7.4m which would be a 37% uplift from 2020. It is ambitious, and a lot needs to go right to get there, but I believe it is achievable.
For other news at Siren, we have now completed many of our planned capital expenditure projects to boost quality and improve performance, efficiency and sustainability. This list now includes:
- 4 x External quad tanks
- New CIP system
- External malt silo
- New fully equipped lab
- New boiler
- New water treatment plant
- An additional unit to help our ever-growing warehouse requirements
These enhancements have enabled us to move to brewing 3 times per day when demand requires, and to have a happier team at the same time.
Many of you were involved in our online birthday party, which had some technical quirks, but ultimately was a huge success. We rolled out the Grateful Eight crowd-sourced birthday beer along with this year’s Maiden release, and along with lots of fun content, a great time was had by all. I hope you also enjoyed our one-off Investor Double Discount day, it seems like many of you took advantage and stocked up, which was great to see.
So, what have we got in store for the rest of 2021? Quite a lot as it happens.
I am really excited to announce that we have taken the first steps towards our bar expansion. We are currently exploring a number of opportunities for city centre Tap Yards, however, as of July, Siren are the proud owners of the George & Dragon in Swallowfield.
I always felt that a country pub side to Siren, whilst different to many of our peers, would be a really great extension of the experience we want to offer. The George & Dragon has been known for great food, roaring fireplaces in the winter, and stunning walks in the summer. We have taken it over as is, added a few Siren lines as a starting point, and aim to refurb and develop it over the coming year. It’s a beautiful pub, the Sunday roast is fantastic (as is the Superfood Salad) and soon to be famous G&D fries, and we are looking forward to a few investor events there for those local enough to enjoy.
We haven't announced this publically yet but will do so in due course.
Even closer to home (quite a feat given how close the pub is to us), we're upping our game at the Tap Yard too. We've installed a new high-end stone baked pizza oven and taken on a talented young chef, so there's always something to keep you well-fed at the Tap Yard.
For new product launches, we were really excited to launch a Pompelmocello Fest. It's an exploration of Pompelmocello, a fantastic beer that has been in our range for over 5 and a half years. ‘Pomp’ as it’s known here has developed a real cult following and these releases will be a lot of fun. If you haven't checked them out I urge you to do so.
You may also be excited to hear that Project Barista is returning! This is our (last year excluded) annual festival of my two favourite things - beer and coffee - and we have a stunning line up planned. It will include a long overdue party at the brewery, along with online content for those who can't make it, or don't want to make the jump to that level of contact yet. Please get your tickets before it sells out.
Once again, thanks for all your support. You have literally kept us all going here at the brewery for the last 18 months. Hopefully I will see some of you soon, and I look forward to the next update.
